Free Ovi Maps Navigation on Nokia E72 unlikely to show on E71

A few days ago @_bjorn send over an alert about this blog post, which essentially underlines my thoughts on what Nokia is doing with Ovi Maps.

There’s been speculation among users of legacy phones like the Nokia whether the recent release of Free Navigation for Nokia E72, E55, E52, N97 and mini, X6, 6730, 6710, 5800, and 5230 would also be released for other phones – like the E71.

Now, I don’t KNOW any of this, but here’s why that won’t happen:

Nokia presumably likes when their new phones get good traction. As mentioned in the blog post I link to above, Nokia is getting traction by offering a service on new devices for free, which would otherwise cost quite a bit. In this case Nokia has chosen to offer free navigation to the Nokia devices mentioned above and (currently) not on any other devices.
That will move customers in direction of a move from their current device to a new device. Some would argue that Nokia is playing a risky game as disgruntled users might choose other smartphones like the iPhone, Android, BlackBerry or even Windows Mobile devices in the market currently.

So, from Nokia’s point of view: They already sold the phones that currently can’t do free navigation – not with Ovi Maps, anyway. They made that money already. To now risk that users move from their Nokia E71 to another platform other than Nokia’s own is (almost) as bad as that users keep their current Nokia devices without making any change at all. No change at all equals no extra revenue for Nokia, so it’s better and more profitable for Nokia to risk alienating users through not offering free Ovi Maps for older devices than to put efforts in supporting users of phones that already got sold.

I have been assured that they would be making this available for legacy phones. I have N95 8GB, but my patience is wearing thin waiting. I love their products, but they continue to make bad PR moves like this and they will be finished in north America. I am in Canada, long time user me Nokia, but this could end very soon android (specifically the Motorola milestone) is starting to look pretty good to me these days. The longer they continue to ignore the more damage they do. From a PR standpoint EPIC FAIL!

I don’t agree with you on this one. First, there was, if I’m not mistaken, an official anouncement that other, older devices would follow, probably in March. Second, I think that Nokia will benefit in PR terms by also adding this almost unique service to older devices. On the short term it will cost them, on the long haul it will bind customers to their brand. I’m not a marketing expert, but there are a lot of Nokia users out there who keep buying Nokia devices because they have grown familiar with the UI and services. I’m one of them. If I have the chance to try this on my current device, the chance of buying a Nokia device again will rise. That’s the way I see it and I hope Nokia will too 😉

Definitely a bad PR move not to include other models as their advertising featured the statement “Free navigation for all!” which is clearly not the case, for now at least. I, for one, refuse to pay for licenses when it’s free for other customers.

The navigational software present is only one small factor in my decision as to which smartphone to buy. How I feel I am treated, as a company’s customer, is a significant factor in my decision as to whether I’m going to buy again, from that company.

I bought the E71, in mid-2009, even though it didn’t have free turn-by-turn navigation. Given Nokia’s decision to deny me free turn-by-turn navigation now, I’ll give a long, hard look at their competitors, for my future phone purchases.

If Nokia were the only phone to offer turn-by-turn navigation, the logic that I might purchase another phone from them, to get that feature, might hold water. But, theirs are not the only phones with that feature.

@Jakob, just happened to visit your blog today, liked it , simple, well thought. Hey but one issue, i dont know if thats only with me.
I see on your blog main page all posts under featured and latest headlines garbled, I mean i dont see them properly.
I have tried in with Google Chrome 5.0 Dev version and Firefox 3.0 on Ubuntu 9.04. I will try on Windows and check.